Comments on: Literature Over Lunch http://blog.commoncore.org/2009/04/03/literature-over-lunch/ Promoting a full core curriculum. Sat, 31 Dec 2011 04:01:59 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Making Connections, Part 1: The Road Not Taken at Joanne Jacobs http://blog.commoncore.org/2009/04/03/literature-over-lunch/#comment-5100 Making Connections, Part 1: The Road Not Taken at Joanne Jacobs Sat, 23 May 2009 11:11:54 +0000 http://blog.commoncore.org/?p=58#comment-5100 [...] run two lunchtime literature clubs at my school. The fourth graders just finished reading A Little Princess. During our discussions, I [...] [...] run two lunchtime literature clubs at my school. The fourth graders just finished reading A Little Princess. During our discussions, I [...]

]]> By: Mitchell Hirsch http://blog.commoncore.org/2009/04/03/literature-over-lunch/#comment-4227 Mitchell Hirsch Tue, 07 Apr 2009 17:06:18 +0000 http://blog.commoncore.org/?p=58#comment-4227 What a rewarding experience for everyone involved. Your description sounds, for reading and literature, a lot like my 7th grade daughter's after-school Writing Club program, except it involves individual and collaborative writing. The students engage in this activity voluntarily, and while given direction are also empowered to make choices about forms and subject matter. The Club only meets once a week for an hour after school. The focus is not so much on "skills", although skills do develop through the work. The focus is really on encouraging a socially reinforced individual love of writing. The sad truth, however, is that while my daughter points to this Club and a similar, student-tutors-for-other-students program as the most educationally and socially rewarding experiences she has this year -- both meet after school and only once a week. If school itself could incorporate these approaches on a regular basis... then maybe we wouldn't be hearing talk about longer school days and longer school years. What a rewarding experience for everyone involved. Your description sounds, for reading and literature, a lot like my 7th grade daughter’s after-school Writing Club program, except it involves individual and collaborative writing. The students engage in this activity voluntarily, and while given direction are also empowered to make choices about forms and subject matter. The Club only meets once a week for an hour after school. The focus is not so much on “skills”, although skills do develop through the work. The focus is really on encouraging a socially reinforced individual love of writing.

The sad truth, however, is that while my daughter points to this Club and a similar, student-tutors-for-other-students program as the most educationally and socially rewarding experiences she has this year — both meet after school and only once a week. If school itself could incorporate these approaches on a regular basis… then maybe we wouldn’t be hearing talk about longer school days and longer school years.

]]> By: Diane Ravitch http://blog.commoncore.org/2009/04/03/literature-over-lunch/#comment-4128 Diane Ravitch Fri, 03 Apr 2009 16:51:30 +0000 http://blog.commoncore.org/?p=58#comment-4128 Beautiful work, Diana, both the work you are doing and your description of it. It reminds us of what schools are supposed to do, and how the incessant and insidious PD has led teachers astray by emphasizing process instead of the meat of what one studies. Diane Ravitch Beautiful work, Diana, both the work you are doing and your description of it. It reminds us of what schools are supposed to do, and how the incessant and insidious PD has led teachers astray by emphasizing process instead of the meat of what one studies.

Diane Ravitch

]]>